This last week has been an eye-opener for me in regards to New Media. Twice I was placed in the position of being a New Media apologist, trying to explain to someone why New Media was important even though they were very resistant to some of the basic ideas behind New Media. Everything I said was met with a hundred reasons why something wouldn’t work from “that’s not the way that business works” to “I don’t want to become an “XXX” where you insert your favorite old media job (i.e. publisher, promoter, manager, etc.)

Most of these conversations started with the phrase, “tell him/her how they could use New Media to do X, Y, Z.” This is always doomed to failure, of course, as they have most likely made up their mind already that New Media is not for them. Hence, the conversation goes nowhere.

These conversations have taken me back to the days of the old PC vs. Mac wars. I realized a long time ago that this and many similar discussions, are fruitless exercises and don’t warrant the breath expended on them. As they say, “Never teach a pig to sing, It doesn’t work and it annoys the pig.”

So, in this way I say that I will be a New Media apologist no more! My job is to teach people how to use New Media to improve their businesses, their careers and their lives. If they haven’t figured out that New Media can help them, it is not my job to convince them. That is simply “teaching the pig to sing.” In fact, some might say that it is impossible to convince someone out of a strongly held opinion, They have to come to that understanding on their own. Only then can I help them.

So now, I will wait for the “When you are ready, the teacher will appear” moment and save my energy for more important battles.